The Eastern Election: Xeyah Martin’s hopes for his term as the Student Government Association President.

Xeyah Martin has big plans for Eastern University. The junior business administration major is the incoming SGA Executive Board President for the 2021-2022 school year, having previously served as the vice president and treasurer in the past. While his term as president will not begin until next semester, Martin has created a detailed plan on how the university as a whole can become an improved place for students to grow.

The first step in Martin’s plan begins here, in this article. Martin approached the Waltonian a few weeks ago as a step towards transparency
between university leadership and the Eastern community. Since a majority of the readers of the Waltonian are not only students, but also faculty members, staff, alumni, parents, and donors, Martin wanted everyone to know what his plan is for the future of Eastern.

Martin’s main goal is for Eastern to “become more student-focused”. The first way he thought of doing this was through creating a more cost-effective experience for students and those who pay for students’ tuition. Over the past few years, Eastern has raised tuition prices for students while the quality of student life has stayed stagnant. Martin’s suggested tuition cuts include removing the mysterious “green energy fee” that many seem unaware or unsure of the purpose of, and introducing a tuition freeze that will keep students’ tuition the same for their entire time at Eastern.

Another big change that Martin would like to do is he would like to increase both the size and impact of Eastern’s student government. With the introduction of representatives of commuter students, online students, international students, and Palmer Seminary, Martin hopes to diversify the perspectives that SGA has, thus increasing the awareness of needs from the nontraditional student population. Martin also would like to create student town hall events to create a conversation of the changes and administrative changes with the student body. Believe it or not, Eastern’s current board meetings are not town hall style; they are closed-door meetings that are accessible by invitation only.

Martin has a number of other initiatives that he hopes to begin in the upcoming year. He hopes to introduce a campus clean-up program for the ponds and other natural resources on campus. He also has the idea to introduce a charity pageant for Eastern students as a way to bring in money and boost morale. Of course, these events would need to happen post-pandemic, but Martin is staying optimistic about the outcome of both the pandemic and his proposal.

As Martin begins to prepare for his term as executive president of Student Government, he wants the Eastern community to know that he has the students at the forefront of his purpose. “I always want to be a listening ear for the students, because for far long students have gone unheard and unrecognized,” says Martin. Overall, he hopes to create a better Eastern for the next generation of Eagles.